Subject: Re: Auto update submodules after merge and reset

From: Jens Lehmann <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:52:07 +0100

Am 13.12.2011 00:43, schrieb Phil Hord:
> On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 5:39 PM, Jens Lehmann <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> Am 11.12.2011 22:15, schrieb Andreas T.Auer:
>>> In http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/183837 was discussed whether the gitlink in the superproject should be set to all-zero if updates follow the tip or maybe use the SHA1 of the commit when the submodule was added. I think the gitlink should be updated everytime when a new commit in the superproject is created.
>>
>> Nope, only when "git submodule update" is run. Otherwise you'll spray the
>> history with submodule updates totally unrelated to the commits in the
>> superproject, which is rather confusing.
> 
> And this is why my superproject is a makefile, a .gitmodules file and
> a bunch of gitlinks.  We only use it to track the advancement of
> submodule activity.

Which is fine. Did you think about having a branch where only the
submodules are updated (and built and tested) and committed to by a
buildbot when everything is fine? You could then merge that branch
whenever you want up-to-date submodules and have the reproducibility
of the exact model while being able to "float" along the updates of
that branch?

I think it always boils down to this: Either commit new gitlinks, so
the submodules get updated in a reproducible manner, or don't use
gitlinks at all so the submodules can float wherever they want.

> So yes, I want my superproject's gitlinks to update automatically.  I
> just don't know a smart way to make that happen.

Yup, that has been the endpoint of all discussions about that topic
so far. And until someone comes up with a smart way to make that
happen, I would rather not put something half-baked into git.

(But please tell us when you found a smart way to do that! ;-)